If there is a "WILL' there is peace - Alfred - Nobel Prize
If there is a ‘WILL’ there is peace - Alfred – Nobel
Prize
Nobel Prize was founded by Alfred Nobel. The man who made arms, ammunition and explosives turns out to be a spokesperson for peace. He amassed his millions through manufacturing and selling dynamite and other explosives and became a wealthy man.
Alfred Nobel was the
inventor of Dynamite and founder of Nobel Prizes. Apart from Peace the Nobel Prize is awarded
to outstanding contributions in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine,
Literature and Economic sciences.
Alfred Nobel at the
time of his death instituted a will from the fortune he left behind for prize
money awarded as “NOBEL PRIZE” for extraordinary achievements in the fields of
Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, Economics and Peace.
Swedish
chemist Alfred Nobel invented dynamite and other explosives. He used his enormous
fortune from 355 patents to institute the Nobel Prizes.
There is no other Award
as popular as Nobel Prize in the world for excellence in various categories. Nobel Prizes are selected from nominations
for the greatest achievements in the above said categories from throughout the
world.
Nobel Prize for
Economic Sciences was introduced latter.
Sweden’s central bank, Sveriges Riksbank, established the Nobel Prize in
Economics in 1968 in honor of Alfred Nobel.
Amartya Sen from India is a Nobel Prize winner for Economics.
Rabindranath Tagore was the First Indian to receive a Nobel Prize Award. He received the award for literature for his work 'Gitanjali'.
Mother Teresa received Nobel Prize for peace.
The other Indian Nobel Laureates are Sir C.V. Raman, Dr Hargobind Khorana, Dr.Subramanian Chandrasekhar, Dr. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Kailash Satyarthi and V.S. Naipaul.
Between 1901 and 2014, the Nobel Prizes and Prize in Economic Sciences were awarded 567 times to 889 people and organizations.
Rabindranath Tagore was the First Indian to receive a Nobel Prize Award. He received the award for literature for his work 'Gitanjali'.
Mother Teresa received Nobel Prize for peace.
The other Indian Nobel Laureates are Sir C.V. Raman, Dr Hargobind Khorana, Dr.Subramanian Chandrasekhar, Dr. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Kailash Satyarthi and V.S. Naipaul.
Between 1901 and 2014, the Nobel Prizes and Prize in Economic Sciences were awarded 567 times to 889 people and organizations.
The Nobel Prize Awards for 2015 will be announced between 5th October, 2015 and 12th October, 2015.
His name also survives in modern-day companies such as Dynamit Nobel and AkzoNobel, which are descendants of mergers with companies Nobel himself established.
Alfred Nobel
His name also survives in modern-day companies such as Dynamit Nobel and AkzoNobel, which are descendants of mergers with companies Nobel himself established.
Alfred Nobel
Business Leader, Engineer, Chemist, Scientist, Inventor (1833–1896)
Synopsis
Born on October 21, 1833, in Stockholm, Sweden,
Alfred Nobel worked at his father's arms factory as a young man. Intellectually
curious, he went on to experiment with chemistry and explosives. In 1864, a
deadly explosion killed his younger brother. Deeply affected, Nobel developed a
safer explosive: dynamite. Nobel used his vast fortune to establish the Nobel
Prizes, which has come to be known for awarding the greatest achievements
throughout the world. He died of a stroke in 1896.
Early Years
Alfred Bernhard Nobel was born on October 21,
1833, in Stockholm, Sweden, the fourth of Immanuel and Andreitte Nobel's eight
children. Alfred was often sickly as a child, but he was always lively and
curious about the world around him. Although he was a skilled engineer and
ready inventor, Alfred's father struggled to set up a profitable business in
Sweden. When Alfred was 4, his father moved St. Petersburg, Russia, to take a
job manufacturing explosives. The family followed him in 1842. Alfred's newly
affluent parents sent him to private tutors in Russia, and he quickly mastered
chemistry and became fluent in English, French, German and Russian as well as
his native language, Swedish.
An Invention and A Legacy
Alfred left Russia at the age of 18. After
spending a year in Paris studying chemistry, he moved to the United States.
After five years, he returned to Russia and began working in his father's
factory making military equipment for the Crimean War. In 1859, at the war's
end, the company went bankrupt. The family moved back to Sweden, and Alfred
soon began experimenting with explosives. In 1864, when Alfred was 29, a huge
explosion in the family's Swedish factory killed five people, including
Alfred's younger brother Emil. Dramatically affected by the event, Nobel set
out to develop a safer explosive. In 1867, he patented a mixture of
nitroglycerin and an absorbent substance, producing what he named
"Dynamite."
In 1888, Alfred's brother Ludvig died while in
France. A French newspaper erroneously published Alfred's obituary instead of
Ludvig's, and condemned Alfred for his invention of dynamite. Provoked by the
event and disappointed with how he felt he might be remembered, Nobel set aside
a bulk of his estate to establish the Nobel Prizes to honor men and women for
outstanding achievements in physics, chemistry, medicine and literature, and
for working toward peace. Sweden’s central bank, Sveriges Riksbank,
established the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1968 in honor of Alfred Nobel.
He died of a stroke on December 10, 1896, in San
Remo, Italy. After taxes and bequests to individuals, Nobel left 31,225,000
Swedish kronor (equivalent to 250 million U.S. dollars in 2008) to fund the
Nobel Prizes.
Alfred Bernhard Nobel was born in Stockholm on October 21, 1833. His father Immanuel Nobel was an engineer and inventor who built bridges and buildings in Stockholm. In connection with his construction work Immanuel Nobel also experimented with different techniques for blasting rocks.
Alfred's mother, born Andriette Ahlsell, came from a wealthy family. Due to misfortunes in his construction work caused by the loss of some barges of building material, Immanuel Nobel was forced into bankruptcy the same year Alfred Nobel was born. In 1837 Immanuel Nobel left Stockholm and his family to start a new career in Finland and in Russia. To support the family, Andriette Nobel started a grocery store which provided a modest income. Meanwhile Immanuel Nobel was successful in his new enterprise in St. Petersburg, Russia. He started a mechanical workshop which provided equipment for the Russian army and he also convinced the Tsar and his generals that naval mines could be used to block enemy naval ships from threatening the city.
Immanuel Nobel
|
Andreitte Nobel
|
The naval mines designed by Immanuel Nobel were
simple devices consisting of submerged wooden casks filled with gunpowder.
Anchored below the surface of the Gulf of Finland, they effectively deterred
the British Royal Navy from moving into firing range of St. Petersburg during
the Crimean war (1853-1856). Immanuel Nobel was also a pioneer in arms
manufacture and in designing steam engines.
Successful in his industrial and business
ventures, Immanuel Nobel was able, in 1842, to bring his family to St.
Petersburg. There, his sons were given a first class education by private
teachers. The training included natural sciences, languages and literature. By
the age of 17 Alfred Nobel was fluent in Swedish, Russian, French, English and
German. His primary interests were in English literature and poetry as well as
in chemistry and physics. Alfred's father, who wanted his sons to join his
enterprise as engineers, disliked Alfred's interest in poetry and found his son
rather introverted. In order to widen Alfred's horizons his father sent him
abroad for further training in chemical engineering. During a two year period
Alfred Nobel visited Sweden, Germany, France and the United States. In Paris,
the city he came to like best, he worked in the private laboratory of Professor
T. J. Pelouze, a famous chemist. There he met the young Italian chemist Ascanio
Sobrero who, three years earlier, had invented nitroglycerine,
a highly explosive liquid. Nitroglycerine was produced by mixing Glycerin with
sulfuric and nitric acid. It was considered too dangerous to be of any
practical use. Although its explosive power greatly exceeded that of gunpowder,
the liquid would explode in a very unpredictable manner if subjected to heat
and pressure.
Alfred Nobel became very interested in nitroglycerine and how it could be put to practical use in construction work. He also realized that the safety problems had to be solved and a method had to be developed for the controlled detonation of nitroglycerine. In the United States he visited John Ericsson, the Swedish-American engineer who had developed the screw propeller for ships. In 1852 Alfred Nobel was asked to come back and work in the family enterprise which was booming because of its deliveries to the Russian army. Together with his father he performed experiments to develop nitroglycerine as a commercially and technically useful explosive. As the war ended and conditions changed, Immanuel Nobel was again forced into bankruptcy. Immanuel and two of his sons, Alfred and Emil, left St. Petersburg together and returned to Stockholm. His other two sons, Robert and Ludvig, remained in St. Petersburg. With some difficulties they managed to salvage the family enterprise and then went on to develop the oil industry in the southern part of the Russian empire. They were very successful and became some of the wealthiest persons of their time.
Alfred Nobel became very interested in nitroglycerine and how it could be put to practical use in construction work. He also realized that the safety problems had to be solved and a method had to be developed for the controlled detonation of nitroglycerine. In the United States he visited John Ericsson, the Swedish-American engineer who had developed the screw propeller for ships. In 1852 Alfred Nobel was asked to come back and work in the family enterprise which was booming because of its deliveries to the Russian army. Together with his father he performed experiments to develop nitroglycerine as a commercially and technically useful explosive. As the war ended and conditions changed, Immanuel Nobel was again forced into bankruptcy. Immanuel and two of his sons, Alfred and Emil, left St. Petersburg together and returned to Stockholm. His other two sons, Robert and Ludvig, remained in St. Petersburg. With some difficulties they managed to salvage the family enterprise and then went on to develop the oil industry in the southern part of the Russian empire. They were very successful and became some of the wealthiest persons of their time.
After his return to Sweden in 1863, Alfred Nobel concentrated on developing nitroglycerine as an explosive. Several explosions, including one (1864) in which his brother Emil and several other persons were killed, convinced the authorities that nitroglycerin production was exceedingly dangerous. They forbade further experimentation with nitroglycerin within the Stockholm city limits and Alfred Nobel had to move his experimentation to a barge anchored on Lake Mälaren. Alfred was not discouraged and in 1864 he was able to start mass production of nitroglycerin.
To make the handling of nitroglycerin safer Alfred Nobel experimented with different additives. He soon found that mixing nitroglycerin with kieselguhr would turn the liquid into a paste which could be shaped into rods of a size and form suitable for insertion into drilling holes. In 1867 he patented this material under the name of dynamite. To be able to detonate the dynamite rods he also invented a detonator (blasting cap) which could be ignited by lighting a fuse. These inventions were made at the same time as the diamond drilling crown and the pneumatic drill came into general use. Together these inventions drastically reduced the cost of blasting rock, drilling tunnels, building canals and many other forms of construction work. Dynamite established Nobel's fame and was soon used in blasting tunnels, cutting canals and building railways and roads all over the world.
The market for dynamite and detonating caps grew very rapidly and Alfred Nobel also proved himself to be a very skillful entrepreneur and businessman. By 1865 his factory in Krümmel near Hamburg, Germany, was exporting nitroglycerin explosives to other countries in Europe, America and Australia. Over the years he founded factories and laboratories in some 90 different places in more than 20 countries.
Although he lived in Paris much of his life he was constantly traveling. Victor Hugo at one time described him as "Europe's richest vagabond". When he was not traveling or engaging in business activities Nobel himself worked intensively in his various laboratories, first in Stockholm and later in Hamburg (Germany), Ardeer (Scotland), Paris and Sevran (France), Karlskoga (Sweden) and San Remo (Italy). He focused on the development of explosives technology as well as other chemical inventions, including such materials as synthetic rubber and leather, artificial silk, etc. By the time of his death in 1896 he had 355 patents.
Intensive work and travel did not leave much time
for a private life. At the age of 43 he was feeling like an old man. At this
time he advertised in a newspaper "Wealthy, highly-educated elderly
gentleman seeks lady of mature age, versed in languages, as secretary and
supervisor of household." The most qualified applicant turned out to be an
Austrian woman, Countess Bertha Kinsky.
After working a very short time for Nobel she decided to return to Austria to marry Count Arthur von Suttner. In spite of this Alfred Nobel and Bertha von Suttner remained friends and kept writing letters to each other for decades. Over the years Bertha von Suttner became increasingly critical of the arms race. She wrote a famous book, Lay Down Your Arms and became a prominent figure in the peace movement. No doubt this influenced Alfred Nobel when he wrote his final will which was to include a Prize for persons or organizations who promoted peace. Several years after the death of Alfred Nobel, the Norwegian Storting (Parliament) decided to award the 1905 Nobel Peace Prize to Bertha von Suttner.
After working a very short time for Nobel she decided to return to Austria to marry Count Arthur von Suttner. In spite of this Alfred Nobel and Bertha von Suttner remained friends and kept writing letters to each other for decades. Over the years Bertha von Suttner became increasingly critical of the arms race. She wrote a famous book, Lay Down Your Arms and became a prominent figure in the peace movement. No doubt this influenced Alfred Nobel when he wrote his final will which was to include a Prize for persons or organizations who promoted peace. Several years after the death of Alfred Nobel, the Norwegian Storting (Parliament) decided to award the 1905 Nobel Peace Prize to Bertha von Suttner.
Alfred Nobel's greatness lay in his ability to combine the penetrating mind of the scientist and inventor with the forward-looking dynamism of the industrialist. Nobel was very interested in social and peace-related issues and held what were considered radical views in his era. He had a great interest in literature and wrote his own poetry and dramatic works. The Nobel Prizes became an extension and a fulfillment of his lifetime interests.
Many of the companies founded by Nobel have
developed into industrial enterprises that still play a prominent role in the
world economy, for example Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI), Great Britain;
Société Centrale de Dynamite, France; and Dyno Industries in Norway. Toward the
end of his life, he acquired the company AB Bofors in Karlskoga, where
Björkborn Manor became his Swedish home. Alfred Nobel died in San Remo, Italy,
on December 10, 1896. When his will was
opened it came as a surprise that his fortune was to be used for Prizes in
Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature and Peace. The executors
of his will were two young engineers, Ragnar
Sohlman and Rudolf Lilljequist. They set about forming the Nobel
Foundation as an organization to take care of the financial assets left by
Nobel for this purpose and to coordinate the work of the Prize-Awarding
Institutions. This was not without its difficulties since the will was
contested by relatives and questioned by authorities in various countries.
A living man one day awoke to read his obituary script written by a journalist in a newspaper mistaking his brother’s death as his own and horrified and determined to change the world’s notion about the true purpose of his life. The dynamite legacy paved way for instituting a Nobel Prize monetary award for the work towards bringing peace in the world.
A living man one day awoke to read his obituary script written by a journalist in a newspaper mistaking his brother’s death as his own and horrified and determined to change the world’s notion about the true purpose of his life. The dynamite legacy paved way for instituting a Nobel Prize monetary award for the work towards bringing peace in the world.
The saying “If there is
a will, there is a way” is true in the case of Alfred Nobel’s mission towards
bringing peace into this world. He left
behind in his will a large legacy earned from selling dynamite and other
explosives for the cause of peace.
Let me end this blog
post by wishing everyone “Peace be with you”, Amen !
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